I have an early 2011 13-inch MacBook Pro which had a loose hinge, so about a month ago I decided to open it up to remove the display assembly, tighten the hinge screws and reassemble.
While I was reassembling, the LVDS connector snapped back onto the logic board and something tiny on the board shorted with a little spark. I went to power the machine on and found I had no display - or at least until shining a torch through the Apple logo revealed it was just the backlight which had gone.
After a little research, I concluded that the problem was a tiny blown fuse near the LVDS connector. I confirmed the existing fuse was an open circuit, so I set about finding the appropriate part to replace.
The little SMD which has a "P" stamped on it appears to be a 3amp 32V SMD fuse in a 0603 package, which I was able to source in a strip of 10 for AUD$4 shipped ex China.
After a couple of weeks waiting for the delivery I finally had the components in my hands and set about replacing the part. Given the tiny size of this component (and the fact it is simply a fuse), I decided I would leave the existing blown fuse in place on the board and solder the new one on top - which would save messing around with removing the component and potentially damaging the solder pads...
After a single failed attempt (which burnt the fuse on the soldering iron tip), I successfully installed the new SMD fuse in place and powered on the machine...
Once again, I have a working MacBook Pro (running the Unsupported Mojave patcher) for a component repair cost of 40 cents!
I hope this post can possibly assist others with the same backlight failure - I believe this might also apply to the mid-2012 13" MBP and possibly the earlier models.
-AphoticD
While I was reassembling, the LVDS connector snapped back onto the logic board and something tiny on the board shorted with a little spark. I went to power the machine on and found I had no display - or at least until shining a torch through the Apple logo revealed it was just the backlight which had gone.
After a little research, I concluded that the problem was a tiny blown fuse near the LVDS connector. I confirmed the existing fuse was an open circuit, so I set about finding the appropriate part to replace.
The little SMD which has a "P" stamped on it appears to be a 3amp 32V SMD fuse in a 0603 package, which I was able to source in a strip of 10 for AUD$4 shipped ex China.
After a couple of weeks waiting for the delivery I finally had the components in my hands and set about replacing the part. Given the tiny size of this component (and the fact it is simply a fuse), I decided I would leave the existing blown fuse in place on the board and solder the new one on top - which would save messing around with removing the component and potentially damaging the solder pads...
I hope this post can possibly assist others with the same backlight failure - I believe this might also apply to the mid-2012 13" MBP and possibly the earlier models.
-AphoticD
